Ranker Who Lives Twice

Team: HH, thursdays, Yahiko (4/12)

[TN: God’s Blessing will be changed to Divine Blessing, Demon’s Blessing to Demonic Blessing, and Dragon’s Blessing to Draconic Blessing.]

Benteke’s eyes shot open.

“Captain! Are you up…..kuk!”

The servant who eagerly greeted him gasped. Benteke had wrapped his hand around his neck.

The servant couldn’t say anything. Looking into Benteke’s blazing eyes, he was speechless. He felt like he was going to be crushed right then and there.

“Where’s Jinrang?”

“Sorry…..?”

“Jinrang. Where is he?”

“T, T, That’s…..!”

The servant wanted to say something but was so stricken with fear that he couldn’t.

It only angered Benteke further. Just when he was about to crush the servant’s neck—

“Stop scolding that innocent child.”

Jinrang opened the door and entered. There was a bowl of porridge in his hands.

However, Benteke didn’t see any of that.

“Jinrang…..!”

Calling out Jinrang’s name, he ground his teeth. That guy had interfered with his fight. Benteke was a person who called himself a beast and hated people stepping into his fights more than anything. It was because he saw it as an attack on his competence.

However, Jinrang was calm even while receiving Benteke’s murderous aura. The servant who had barely squirmed out of Benteke’s grip fainted.

They stayed like that for a while.

Benteke closed his eyes with a crumpled face, letting out a long breath. When he opened his eyes again, his eyes were still blazing, but the madness in them was gone.

“Fine. Since it’s coming from you….. it must be right.”

“Thank you for understanding.”

Jinrang bowed.

Benteke knew what happened when you were destroyed by selfishness. His lover, Lana. He couldn’t follow in her steps.

He tried to hold back his anger. He trusted Jinrang’s loyalty and decisiveness more than anyone else’s.

“However.”

Benteke bared his teeth at the bowing Jinrang.

“This won’t happen again.”

“Of course.”

He was acting like it was natural.

Benteke snorted.

“……Dry bastard.”

He wanted to make Jinrang suffer by being pettish, but Jinrang took it in stride.

Benteke laughed emptily, feeling like Jinrang was above him.

But only for a moment. Benteke looked at his side with hard eyes. The sleeve where his right arm should’ve been was empty.

“My arm isn’t healing.”

“Yes, it’s not.”

Jinrang also had a hard face.

Holy power was known as a power that gods bestowed. However, to be exact, holy power was a power of creation. It could make things that didn’t exist and make things from one’s imagination into reality. It was also a power that returned things to their original state.

The reason why Benteke was able to recover quickly even after his body was destroyed was because he had an ample amount of this holy power.

With his channel with Poseidon strengthened, it was right that his cut-off right arm was restored.

That was the “original Benteke.” Holy power should’ve reconstructed him back to his original appearance.

However, his right arm was still not restored. The cells should’ve been moving weren’t even budging.

Benteke knew what that meant.

“Kehalhalhalhal! Seems like he’s enjoying my arm.”

Benteke let out a loud chuckle. He actually liked this situation. From his holy artifact to his arm. The guy took quite a lot of his stuff. The Hoarder. He was a greedy guy.

It was fun.

He was looking forward to it. How would he feel when he twisted that guy’s neck?

“He’ll probably come back here. I hope he comes quickly.”

Benteke’s eyes shone with madness.

Just then, Benteke’s shadow wavered. A long narrow eye slightly blinked and settled back into it again.

* * *

[You have gained a Divine Blessing.]

[You have gained a Divine Blessing.]

……

[You have gained an immense amount of Divine Blessings.]

[The hiding Divine Blessing reacts.]

Yeon-woo could feel the strength flooding into his body. For the first time, the Divine Blessing that had always been covered by the Demonic Blessing or the Draconic Blessing woke up and stretched.

Like it had met a friend. Like it had been an excluded student, and the new student was an old friend from their past neighborhood. He could feel how overjoyed it was.

[Poseidon screams.]

[Poseidon comes down from his throne and yells. He is shouting at you to stop.]

[Poseidon is suggesting his subordinate gods punish you.]

[His subordinate gods are scared.]

[Poseidon suggests a heavy punishment for you to Olympus.]

[The result of the vote has failed to be unanimous as Athena and Hermes opposed it.]

[Poseidon protests vehemently to Athena and Hermes.]

[Agares looks at you with frustrated eyes.]

[Agares urges you to accept the Demonic Blessing.]

It wasn’t the Blessing of a normal god. It was the Blessing of a greater god like Poseidon. Yeon-woo felt the power surging through his body.

Crack, crack—

His body also changed. The formation of his cells slightly changed, and his body type also became different.

It wasn’t enough to change his trait, the Demonic Dragon Body, but this was a great reward for Yeon-woo. Not only did his understanding of gods become deeper, but he was able to take Poseidon’s strength by that much.

Everything else aside…..

[Your affinity for the water property has increased by 30.]

[Your control of the water property has increased by 25.]

……

Yeon-woo, who only had a deep affinity with fire and darkness properties, was able to gain a significant amount of affinity and control over the water property for the first time.

The River of Souls was completely disadvantageous to Yeon-woo, so he had been desperate for the water property.

It was solved in one go.

“Whew.”

Catching his breath, Yeon-woo slowly moved.

Crack, crack—

His body felt stiff because of the changes to his body type. The Philosopher’s Stone circulated to quickly assimilate with his body.

With this, most of the injuries from the fight with Benteke were healed. No, they were beyond healed. His abilities had increased.

He focused his power in his eyes. A bright light flashed in his eyes and disappeared.

‘Benteke. I must catch you.’

Even without the reason for avenging Lana, Yeon-woo strongly felt that he needed to have Benteke in his hands.

Just swallowing a single arm was this much, but what would happen if he absorbed his entire body? He might be able to awaken his Demonic Dragon Body by another step.

‘Then what do I have to call it then? Divine Demonic Dragon Body? Demonic Divine Dragon Body?’

Yeon-woo grinned, thinking thoughts that were out of the ordinary for him when he felt Poseidon’s sharp gaze.

[Poseidon is glaring at you with a raging glower.]

Yeon-woo lightly punched the air in his direction and slowly stood up.

Just then, a blue fire flared next to him, and a bird the size of a human’s upper body appeared.

Swoosh—

『Master. Are you okay?』

Nike looked at him with concern.

It seemed that Nike had felt his emotions through their connection after being woken up from his deep sleep because of the changes in his body.

“I’m okay.”

Yeon-woo stroked his head, proud of Nike for worrying about him. Nike purred under his hand like a cat, but he continued to look concerned.

This time, Nemesis’s voice rang out.

『You were too relaxed this time.』

Yeon-woo lifted his head to look above him. Nemesis was looking down at him from the air. His words were dripping with frustration.

『Why didn’t you call for us even in that situation?』

Yeon-woo felt like he knew why Nemesis was so angry. When he had clashed with Benteke and when Waltz’s Primeval Body was chasing him, Yeon-woo hadn’t summoned his Monster Porteents or his Legendary Beasts.

『You weren’t always like that. You only focused on revenge. I’m saying you weren’t someone to be drunk on the fight and become dull. However, it was different this time.』

Nemesis narrowed his eyes.

『Just what were you thinking?』

“…….”

Yeon-woo shut his eyes. All kinds of thoughts moved through his head. Nemesis was correct. He had been drunk on the fight. It was an accurate description of how he felt.

The fight with Benteke was too amusing. It was a pleasure that Yeon-woo hadn’t felt before. Also, it was a release. He acknowledged the beast inside of him for the first time and let it run free. And because of that, he had lost his sense of reason, which was unlike him. He was blinded from the pleasure. He didn’t want Monster Portents of Legendary Beasts interfering to interrupt his fun.

It was something that shouldn’t have happened ever considering his personality and the path he had taken for far.

He should’ve fought alongside Shanon, Hanryeong, and Rebecca when he was going against Benteke. Also, he should’ve sunk the rest of the ships of Triton.

And even if he was drunk on the battle with Benteke, he should’ve regained his logic when Waltz appeared.

However, he wasn’t able to do that. Rather, he was glad to see her. He had the naive thought that she might be able to excite him some more.

“…..It’s my mistake.”

Opening his eyes again, he acknowledged his mistake.

“I’ll be more careful in the future.”

Even if he let out the beast from its cage, he needed to have a tight leash on it. Yeon-woo felt this painstakingly with the recent incidents. He always had to be reasonable.

『Krrrng! Don’t bother Yeon-woo so much! Yeon-woo’s also reflecting!』

Nike flapped his wings at Nemesis and shouted. Nemesis let out a grunt. He was weak towards Nike, who was pretty much his little brother.

『Anyways, next time, don’t struggle with these things alone and call for us. Didn’t you say you were making a clan? Then we’re also a part of that.』

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Yeon-woo silently nodded. He knew that Nemesis was genuinely worried about him. Nemesis didn’t say much either after that and asked with a serious look.

『Aside from that, what are you going to do now? You’re not completely recovered right now. The first daughter of the Summer Queen? You probably need to do something about her first.』

Nemesis had already fought with the Summer Queen with Jeong-woo, so he knew how powerful Waltz was.

『She already seemed like a monster. She became even more of one while I wasn’t around.』

Nemesis was worried about that.

It was obvious how much danger Yeon-woo was in after being marked as Waltz’s target. He still had many floors to climb.

However, Yeon-woo shook his head like he was fine.

“No. She won’t be able to chase after me that easily.”

Nemesis narrowed his eyes.

『Are you……!』

“I’m not drunk on the excitement anymore. Towards the end, I somewhat got a grip.”

『What are you saying?』

“Look at this.”

Grinning, he opened his hand. Nike and Nemesis looked at his palm.

Swoosh—

A black fire spread out, and they could see a scene.

『This……』

Nemesis muttered with surprise.

In the scene, Waltz’s Primeval Body was fighting Duke Ardbad and two other players.

Waltz’s Primeval Body looked to be in critical condition, like she would fall any second. On the other hand, the players along with Duke Ardbad were working together in perfect sync.

However, as if to show why she was the new king after the Summer Queen, she wasn’t defeated by their combined attack.

Rather, the three dukes looked shocked as they continued their attacks.

『Are these……?』

“Yes. They’re all dukes of the Blood Land. It looks like they came at Duke Ardbad’s request.”

The other two dukes were familiar to Nemesis. They were all people he needed to chew up and swallow like Duke Ardbad. It was hilarious seeing his enemies fight each other. One of them even thought that Yeon-woo was on their side.

Nemesis knew that it was a Monster Portent hidden inside Duke Ardbad’s shadow showing them this.

No, it wasn’t merely a Monster Portent.

『Hanryeong! It’s Hanryeong! Just when did you plant him?』

Nemesis exclaimed.

Even though he was connected to Yeon-woo, he couldn’t read all of Yeon-woo’s thoughts and actions. Planting Hanryeong inside Duke Ardbad’s shadow had happened so sneakily that even Nemesis hadn’t caught it.

Yeon-woo’s own allies didn’t know, so there was no way Duke Ardbad would.

He realized why Yeon-woo was confidently saying he got a grip towards the end. To think that Yeon-woo would’ve accomplished this on impulse.

Nemesis clicked his tongue inwardly. His master’s personality was really different from his former masters. He was starting to feel bad for scolding him like that.

『Whoa…….』

Nike was looking at it like it was incredible.

Nemesis asked frantically.

『But does it make a difference, putting Hanryeong there? The Waltz over there is only a shadow anyway. She can always send another body over after being defeated by the three Dukes…….』

“No. It will be hard to do that again. The White Dragon isn’t exactly in the situation to do that. Her appearance this time was probably because she wanted to get a look at me rather than catching me.”

Yeon-woo knew the situation the White Dragon was in. The 76th floor was in a chaotic state.

Although Waltz was acknowledged as the ruler after the Summer Queen, the floor was still in pandemonium because of the three-way battle between the White Dragon, the Green Dragon, and the Black Dragon.

But the only reason why she had sent a Primeval Body was because she wanted to confirm the enemy of the Summer Queen.

Waltz wasn’t a stupid person who couldn’t get her priorites straight.

‘If she was stupid, she wouldn’t have been able to gather the forces that she has now.’

The reason why she was fighting against the Blood Land was probably to decrease their numbers.

『Hmm. Makes sense. Then are you planning on leaving them alone?』

“No. Since this is just an assumption as well. If Waltz decides on chasing us, then we’ll be put in a tough spot too. We don’t have the time to become trapped in a battlefield either.”

『Then what are you going to do?』

“I have a nice spark, so there’s no need to leave it alone, hm?”

『……?』

Nemesis wondered what Yeon-woo was going to do this time. Yeon-woo was scariest when he was scheming things like this.

“They say this on Earth.”

Yeon-woo smiled coldly with his teeth bared.

“Fights and fires are most fun to watch the bigger they are.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Duke Ardbad’s shadow wavered, and something popped out to attack Duke Ardbad’s head.

Duke Ardbad’s head cleanly rolled on the ground. It was something that happened during the fight with Waltz, so the other dukes seemed completely shocked.

Duke Ardbad had a focused face, like he had been concentrating on the fight until the end.

The other two dukes shouted.

Hanryeong picked up Duke Ardbad’s soul, and he hid in the shadows again to hide his presence.

Waltz didn’t lose this chance and exploded her martial attack again. One of the dukes who had been shouting was blown again. Their formation was messed up in an instant.

The scene there.

The vision that Hanryeong shared had disappeared as he left the fight.

『…….』

『…….』

Nemesis and Nike didn’t say anything for a while, their mouths agape.

Feeling a soul return to his collection, Yeon-woo smiled coldly.

“Since a Duke died, the Blood Land will probably be out for the White Dragon’s blood.”

At Yeon-woo’s relaxed tone, Nemesis sighed.

『What Shanon says all the time is correct.』

“What?”

Only

『Your personality is…….』

Still. He had saved Yeon-woo’s life once. Nemesis didn’t know that Yeon-woo would slice his head off like that.

“Shut up.”

『You’re twins born at the same time and place, but I don’t know how you’re so different. Goodness.』

Nemesis sighed deeply.

And deep inside the collection, Shanon was nodding furiously in agreement.